After the William Penn boys' basketball team beat New Oxford 101-47 on Friday night to win its fourth consecutive game to open the season, senior Malik Generett made it a point to talk about the Bearcats rallying around coach Troy Sowers.
"We feel as though we're trying to do something good for Coach Sowers," Generett said. "We're out here running everyday, basically doing for him in addition to us."
Prior to the season, there were some questions as to whether Sowers (above) would even be back this year.
An athletic director from another area school emailed a York Daily Record/Sunday News reporter and wrote that he had heard William Penn had hired somebody to replace Sowers. After making some phone calls to verify, I found out this athletic director was wrong, although there were some other applicants that William Penn apparently looked at. You can read about it here.
Sowers is only in his third season at William Penn, but the Bearcats barely qualified for the District 3 Class AAAA tournament in his first year and went 1-3 in postseason action in 2007-08, including a loss in the YAIAA quarterfinals. Judging from what Generett has told me, it seems like the Bearcats have a renewed focus and intend to prove not only that they can do big things on the basketball court, but that Sowers is the best man to help them do it.
"We've been doing a lot of running and Coach Sowers has been stressing to us that the running we're doing is going to help us in the fourth quarter," Generett said. "That's where we've had a problem in the past -- in the fourth quarter. This year, with our team, I feel as though we're stronger in the fourth quarter than at the beginning of the game and I feel as though that's our strongest feature."
The Bearcats have definitely looked impressive in their first four victories. Sowers said the experience of his players as well as familiarity with him as a coach and his system has made a big difference.
"This is year three for me," Sowers said. "I've had all of these guys for three years. The terminology is set. They understand what they're doing and they're a lot more instinctive in what they do because it's been three years now."
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